Battleship is, not surprisingly, a version of the popular board game of the same name. You place your ships on a grid, and your opponent (computer, or human) takes turns trying to guess where they are located, while you take turns trying to guess where theirs are. It's a well-made game that works well and has a good "feel" to it.

Big 2 is a card game that, according to this program, originated in Hong Kong. I have played it with my friends before and it's great fun, and does take a considerable amount of strategy. The object is to try to get rid of all your cards before your opponents, by playing successively higher hands. You can play single cards or (and this is where the strategy comes in) you can also play poker hands, like a pair, or straight, and everyone else must follow you or lose their turn. This program simulates this game well with a nice user interface and the ability to play against three other computer opponents.

Bolitaire is not a DOS version of the card game Solitaire, but instead a DOS remake of the other popular Windows card game, Freecell. This game is quite well designed, and includes good looking graphics and lots of options to play around with. (Note that this game does not seem to run well from Windows, and does not seem to work at all in DOSBox.)

Crazy Eights is a simple but fun card game. This version pits you against the computer in a 1-vs-1 battle. Unfortunately there is no 2-player mode. However the game is presented in a very slick way, and the computer automatically does some things for you to make the gameplay progress smoothly. Overall a nice-looking, simple card game.

Cribbage Solitaire is a simple text-mode solitaire card game. You play by placing cards one at a time onto a 5x5 grid and tallying up points after you are done. The game is simple and quick to play, so while there are no fancy graphics or sound here it could be fun to play as a brief diversion. (The source code in BASIC is included.) Version 2 adds improved graphics and a high score list.

This is a computerized version of the classic "Rubik's Cube" puzzle game. As you might expect, it's a bit more difficult to play on a computer screen, since the game requires frequent rotation of the cube. Download this if you're looking for a real challenge and think the normal Rubik's Cube is "too easy"! :)

This is a fairly basic but well done version of draw poker. You use the mouse to make your bet, then decide whether to draw or stay, etc. The only bad thing is that the different suits can sometimes be hard to distinguish. Other than that it's very well done.

If you are looking for a clone of the Windows Solitaire card game for DOS, this is it. This game almost exactly mirrors the seminal Windows card game, and is quite well executed. The only bad thing is that the different suits can sometimes be hard to distinguish. Other than that it's very well done.

This game mimics the classic Connect Four vertical checkers board game published by Milton Bradley. The object is to take turns dropping your pieces onto the board until one of the two players gets four in a row. This game includes a "learning" computer opponent that improves as you play. A well made game, despite having no fancy graphics or sounds.

A "get 5 marbles in a row" game. (Duh!) In this game you play against the computer (it's tough!). The graphics are pretty good, and there are some SB sound effects and music. Nothing fancy here but goot at what it is.

Well ... it's hangman. The game includes a fairly large word list; however, most of the words are short and uninteresting (like 'cool' or 'start'). The word list can be customized, though. The graphics are also pretty poor, and there's no sounds ... but hey, how much do you want from 72k? :)

Mah Jongg is a Chinese solitaire game where the object is to remove all 144 tiles from the playing surface, one pair at a time. This game is a very good recreation of this game, as it includes an easy to use interface, and includes a tile editor so users can design their own tilesets. There are also many sets of different tiles available on the Internet.

Mastermind is a copy of the classic game by Pressman (Hasbro for PC). Here you can play against the computer or a second player. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any option to use a mouse so you have to use the keyboard to do everything. ALSO! You MUST go to the commandline and use commandline switches to play this game! Just running it from Windows Explorer WILL NOT WORK. ;) Try "mmind" at the DOS (or DOSBox) prompt to get a list of options or "mmind /d" to use the defaults and play a "medium difficulty" game against the computer.

Mazeball is a virtual "tilt maze" where the object is to roll a ball through a wooden maze by tilting the board, while avoiding holes in the board. It plays very well and looks good. Ball control using the mouse is quite natural. Unfortunately only six mazes are included. (The game is listed as "freeware" by the author, however in order to get the version with more maps and a map editor, you have to pay for it. Therefore I've listed it as Shareware.)

Based on the popular board game (originally by Hasbro), this text-based version of Monopoly allows for multiple human and/or computer controlled players and includes most of the gameplay you remember from the real thing. Although it generally plays quite well, it's necessarily a bit more rigid than playing around your kitchen table with friends. No more loans from the bank ... (Note: There are no detailed instructions included on how to play. If you need a refresher, read the full official Monopoly instructions on Hasbro's site (PDF))

You've probably played Monopoly before; the Parker Brothers' board game has become a ubiquitous game to play when you want to engage in a bitter and fruitless contest with your friends and/or relatives. Now you can play it in text-mode! This version of the game is fairly basic but it does attempt to simulate the board game as closely as it can using basic text 'graphics'.

Packed inside this ... uh, pack ... are six different puzzle games: Tic-Tac-Toe, Marbles (it's like the board game "Mastermind" where you have to guess a sequence of colors) and a few others. Each has many different levels of difficulty, and while the package's graphics are not great, the fact that there are six different games makes it more appealing. A new version was recently released with new features including a level editor for Marbles and variable level selection.

Wanna play some chess? Power Chess might be the game for you. It does a decent job of simulating the chess playing experience, and you can play against a tough computer opponent. (At least, I assume it's tough. Let's just say that my limited skills are no match for it.) The presentation is nothing really exciting but chances are that if you want to play chess you aren't too worried about that. There does seem to be a nice selection of options, statistics, and other things that may interest a chess affascinato.

Unlike some incarnations of chess on the PC, the oddly named "Rebel Decade Chess" program is a hardcore chess simulation. It has a usable interface, but some people who are not hardcore chess players will be a bit overwhelmed by all of the options. I'm only a casual player (that is to say, I suck) so I can't really judge how good the computer is ... it whupped me pretty soundly though. :)

Redhook's Revenge is a sort of pirate board game. The game is played by up to three players (human or computer controlled) who roll dice to move their ships around the map. After each role a seemingly random event or minigame will occur, usually a pirate or sailing based trivia game. (Its kinda like Mario Party but without a lot of the excitement.) Still it plays well, has beautifully crafted EGA graphics, and should be a nice relaxing boardgame style experience.

If you've grown tired of the basic Windows solitaire game, you may want to check out this package of 7 different solitaire variants. All are attractively presented and play well. Some of the variants included are Idiot's Delight, Monte Carlo and Midnight Oil.

One of the most popular new games/fads of the 21st century comes to DOS! Finally! :) This "Sudoku for DOS" version includes three different difficulty modes. If you have never played Sudoku before, Wikipedia explains it thusly: "The aim of the puzzle is to enter a numerical digit from 1 through 9 in each cell of a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 subgrids, starting with various digits given in some cells; each row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each numeral." This is a decent free option to play on your PC.

Since I don't know anything about tarot cards, it's tough for me to say whether or not this is a good program ... however, it seems to be, given my limited knowledge. It's basically a virtual tarot deck, where you can lay out the cards and tell your fortune. Unfortunately, the program doesn't include a tutorial on how to read the cards. In any case, if you're interested in this sort of thing, check it out. (Note: Setup can be tricky ... if you're not comfortable using the DOS prompt, you may want to skip this one.)